Description

Sitecore's versioning policy is aligned with the wider software industry. Our definitions in these areas, including the notion of a feature release, an update, and a hotfix, are described here.

Feature Release

A feature release adds significant functionality to a product.

Sitecore encourages customers to use new feature releases when they have projects that require the functionality that is added in a release.

Sitecore names feature releases with a unique two-level version number.

For example: Sitecore Experience Platform 10.0.

Update

An update resolves a set of issues associated with a specific product version.

Sitecore encourages customers to always install the latest update to ensure the latest fixes are included in their solution. It is important to note that updates are cumulative — Update-2 of a version contains everything that was in Update-1.

Starting from Sitecore XP 10.0, updates do not introduce breaking changes, behavior changes, or new features. If a breaking change needs to be introduced, for example, for security reasons, it would be disabled by default and customers would have to enable it specifically in configuration.

Sitecore names updates with a two-level version number that matches the corresponding feature release and a label that specifies the update number.

For example: Sitecore Experience Platform 10.1 Update-1.

Hotfix

To resolve the support issues that are identified as bugs in the product, Sitecore Support will work with the customer to determine the best way to address the issue.

In some situations, when no workaround for the product bug is available, Sitecore may provide individual customers with a hotfix to resolve a specific issue identified as part of the investigation.

All the hotfixes delivered by Sitecore undergo the full quality assurance cycle and are commonly delivered within a four-week time frame.

The hotfixes provided by Sitecore Support may be cumulative, meaning that they may include changes from the hotfixes previously created for other Sitecore customers.

The fixes included in a Sitecore hotfix are also eventually included in a public Update or Feature Release.

Customers should only apply hotfixes if they are experiencing a specific issue the hotfix is addressing. Additionally, before applying a hotfix, customers should always confirm with Sitecore Support its compatibility with their Sitecore version, as well as confirm that there are no potential conflicts with other installed hotfixes.

Starting from Sitecore XP 10.1, Sitecore distributes the pre-releases of the next update release to provide customers with fixes for their hotfix requests. For more details about pre-releases, refer to Sitecore XP pre-releases.

To get the latest cumulative hotfix compatible with the affected product version, check the Knowledge Base for the corresponding Support Information article.

Naming examples for Sitecore hotfix packages look like this:

SC Hotfix 156031-1 CMS.Core 10.0.4
Sitecore CMS 8.1 rev. 151207 Hotfix 148802-1
Sitecore 10.1.2 rev. 006059 PRE (DELTA WDP XM1 packages)

Historical Notes

• For releases prior to Sitecore CMS 7.0, Sitecore used 3 levels in the version number (for example, 6.6.0).
• Since the release of Sitecore CMS 7.0, Sitecore has only used 2 levels in the version number of products and modules (for example, 7.0).
• Since the release of Sitecore XP 8.2, Sitecore has used 3 levels in the version number of all assemblies. Each assembly follows its own version path in accordance with semantic versioning and is therefore not aligned with the version number of the product or module. A complete list of all assemblies and their version numbers is distributed with each release.
• Since the release of Sitecore XP 9.0, Sitecore has used 3 levels in all product and module artifacts (for example, ZIP and WDP files).
• For releases prior to Sitecore XP 9.1, Sitecore also relied on a revision number to uniquely identify each release.
• Sitecore used to promote a limited number of update packages to the status of a Service Pack. For example: Sitecore CMS 7.2 Service Pack-1 (rev. 141226, originally released as 7.2 Update-3).
• For Sitecore XP 9.0 and earlier, Sitecore also provided patches to address individual product issues experienced by the customer. A Sitecore patch addresses a single issue experienced by the customer and does not go through the full quality assurance cycle, and the related fix might not be included later in the public update or feature release.
  Naming examples for Sitecore patches look like this:
  SC Patch 162512-1 CMS.Core 10.0.5
  Sitecore.Support.141780-8.2.2.0
  Sitecore.Support.378164